PhoneDog 101: Using Safari on your iPhone

Being the first phone to be able to fully load web pages quickly and efficiently, web browsing on the iPhone has been dubbed one of the best web browsing experiences from a phone for years now. It is one of the tools we all use frequently to keep up with blogs, check accounts, and other various tasks while away from our desks. Knowing how to use Safari is a key ingredient to getting the most out of your iPhone.

When you first launch Safari, you are met with a blank page. You can either type in the address bar or search by entering text in the dedicated search bar. At the bottom of the screen, there is a dock. On the far right side of the dock, there are two active buttons: bookmarks and pages. The other three buttons are the back, forward, and the "set as" button. When you begin browsing, these three buttons will become available.

By pressing the "set as" button, you can add a bookmark, add the site to your home page as an icon, send the page URL in an email, and print the page. Tapping the bookmarks button will allow you to view your browsing history, edit or launch your current bookmarks, or you can create and edit folders, which help you organize or categorize said bookmarks.

Navigating in the web browser is done by sliding or swiping to pan and pinching in or out to zoom respectively. Long pressing on a link will bring up a pop-up menu that will allow you to open the link, open it in a new page, or copy the link to the clipboard. If you open a link in a new page, you will notice that the button on the far bottom-right of your screen will change to display the appropriate number of pages you have open. If you press that button, all of the pages you have open will appear. Here you can open a new page, switch between pages, or close them. Long pressing on a picture will also bring up a pop-up menu that will allow you to save the image to your photo album or copy it.

Within the Settings application, there are several different things that you can tweak for Safari. You can set your default search engine (Google, Yahoo!, or Bing); toggle AutoFill, Javascript, and the pop-up blocker on or off; and you can clear your history, cookies, and cache.

Safari for the iPhone may not be the most feature-packed mobile web browser out there, but it is quick and it gets the job done. If it doesn't suit your needs, there are browser alternatives in App Store like Skyfire and Opera. Now that you can browse the web efficiently from your iPhone, check out our other 101s on contact and email setup!

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